Early start for the Tigers at training today. A pretty warm day out in the sun too . I got there just after 10am and the session finished around 11.30am with the Hawks waiting outside for us to finish. No sign of Moore or Browny as far as I saw but everyone else was present. In terms of injuries - Kellaway, Jackson, Tivs and Chaffey were separate from the group. Polo had an icepack on his right quad/inside thigh. Hall and Foley laid on the stretcher table to do some stretching with a trainer after training but both appeared to be ok.

As was the case on Monday, the squad was in the middle of a scratch match when I rocked up. Whites vs Blacks again but this time around the whites had the "name" players. I saw the last quarter and a bit with the whites the dominant side - 5.4-34 to the Blacks 0.1-1. Lids 2, Richo 2 and Raines were the goalkickers IIRC in that time.

In terms of the two sides I might have a couple wrong as Thursty and Razor weren't wearing their usual numbers. Joel had 14 on at the end of training while Rodan looked like he was wearing 38:

The whites were very clean today across the ground. Newman, Joel (CHB on Graham) and Gas were strong down back and with Sugar on a HBF set up many attacking rebounds from the backline. Simmonds was running up and down the ground so it definitely looks like we'll be using him in a Dean Cox/Jeff White way. As for the whites midfield - Tucky especially plus Cogs, Hyde, Rodan and Tambling got plenty of it. Nice long running goal from Raines. Lids did as he pleased on the lead up forward while Richo snagged two while I was there - one in the square after receiving a handball and the other after a mark on the lead then playing on. The decision making and passing when going inside 50 was much better today.

The Blacks were attacking towards the end where the crowd was sitting so the ball didn't come down that often. When it did the Blacks were forced to attack from out wide. Oakley-Nicholls got his hands on the ball a few times though. Stafford had their only set-shot after a mark but missed.

The good thing about training today from my perspective was that there were few errors. It's also great to see the Tiges play modern footy with those without the footy running hard into space to create open options. It regularly enabled the switch of play both to the left and right and back again either way as well as straightening up the play down the middle of the corridor. Terry said afterwards it was a pretty good session.

Terry then brought the boys in and they then did some stretching exercises as one group. After that the squad was broken into three groups - one on each wing and the other in the middle. The drills today were about accuracy.

With each group on the wings - four cones were set-up at one end in the shape of a square and Tivs or a trainer would stand inside this square. The rest of the group was then split into two sides - shirts and no-shirts (settle down Julz ). From ball-ups and throws-ins they had to battle to win the ball then use the run and carry gameplan to get the footy by either hand or foot to Tivs so he could catch/mark the footy within the square. If they did so precisely without the other side stopping them they got a point. If they missed the square it was counted as an automatic turnover. This was pretty well done by all. The only negative to come out of it was Polo, after marking the ball, deciding to try and get past Cogs and Cogs wrapping Polo up in a perfect tackle and taking him to ground. I'm assuming that's when Polo copped his injury. He was pretty sore when leaving training.

While all this was going on, the middle group had a break from the footy and were playing a game where again the group was split into shirts and no-shirts and one player from each would stand within their square facing each other. The objective was to try and ground this yellow heavy? round ball within your opponents square. If you did your team got a point.

The three groups rotated between the two wings and the centre and after that the whole group was brought into together at the Yarra Falls end to do push-ups and that was the end. Tambling and Limbach stayed to do some goalkicking practice.

Wallace said the day wasn't finished for them and we had a couple of sessions to come in the afternoon.

Logged

All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be - Pink Floyd

Rainesy was right near the supporters doing his stretches on Wednesday. Credit to Wallace and the boys for signing autographs and having photos taken with the kids there and chatting to supporters as they come off the ground. The players are pretty stuffed too after these 2 to 2 1/2 hour training sessions.

Logged

All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be - Pink Floyd

Just got back from a hot and blustery Vic Park . One day I might get there when training starts lol but not today. I got there about 11.20pm and the boys trained to around 1pm. Moore and Chaffey were separate from the main group. I didn't notice Chubba out there.

Today was all drill work, mostly focussing on teamwork and Wallace's run, carry and share gameplan.

The drill the boys were doing when I showed up was a switch and run in on goal one. The squad was split into two and each group sent to opposite ends of the ground. The idea of this drill was a player in the goalsquare would kick the ball out to one side. The receiver would then clear the ball outside 50. The play would then change to an attacking one where this player outside 50 would then kick long across to the other side of ground to about the 50 and the receiving player would then either run in on goal himself or handball to a running teammate beside him who would shoot at goal. Within each group the players would rotate through each phase of the drill. Overall it was well done.

The next task was a end-to-end drill where the squad was split and rotated through six spots on the ground - one at each end and the remaining four on the corners of the centre square. The drill would begin at one end with a player kicking to the edge of the square. The receiving player would take the mark then dish off by handball to a teammate running past who would then pass the ball forward to the far end of the square where the mark, handball and pass forward was repeated to the group at the opposite end of the ground. The ball then headed back in the same fashion down the opposite wing. The whole drill repeated over and over with two balls going at once in a clockwise direction.

x / \ x x | | clockwise ball movement x x \ / x

This was fairly well although IMO it could have been done better as a few passes missed the mark. It was blustery though so that would have had some affect.

The squad was then brought in together by Wallace and then split into four groups in the shape of a diamond. One group at each end and the other two on opposite wings. The ball would be moved around the ground in a anticlockwise direction with players running in threes. One of the three players would mark then dish off a handball to one of his other two teammates who would then pass to the next group. Obviously the task was designed to get the boys moving the ball forward in waves with support either side of the ball carrier and then kicking long to a running teammate. Overall fairly well done. The best about this was seeing Browny having no problems kicking long with his right foot .

It was then time for a competitive drill along the lines of the second drill above. The players would have to race two balls around the ground to a spot 30m out where the players there would have a shot. The ball was then passed back to this spot and the same players had to kick the ball along the ground and through for a goal. The first team to do it won while the loser joined the group in the centre of the ground doing running and sprinting work. It took a few grubbers to get it through lol. Krakouer nailed one pretty easily IIRC.

The squad was then split into groups. The first group did end-to-end running at varying their pace between walking, slow jogging, running and sprinting. They would run up and back twice before resting. The last run back would be a sprint from the centre to the goals. Roach won the first one while Tambo the second.

The second group did 10m separated cone work whereby you had to slowly jog to a white cone then the trainer would shout out either green or blue and you had to then sprint to two cones of that colour then to a white on the other side.

That was about it. The younger guys and rookies were allowed to go about half way through. Tambo and Limbach stayed behind after training again to work on their set-shot goalkicking.

No photos from today as I didn't have my camera with me. Sorry Julz and Moi lol.

Logged

All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be - Pink Floyd